Oct. 4, 2024

Halloween is coming up and I have a niece and nephew (2 and 4 years old) that will be dressing up for trick or treating of course. As they're getting a bit older, they will really be able to get into the spirit of it and I nominated myself to make costumes.

The origin of this idea is my grandma, who was an excelling seamstress? sewer? She made many of her clothes and all our school play costumes as children. She made some epic costumes back in the day. My goal is to carry on that legacy with the next generation.

The ultimate goal is to be as good as her, but given my interests are quite spread out over not only sewing, this is unlikely to be achieved. But I'm generally overly confident in my abilities. Shoot for the stars and land on the moon. I hate popular sayings.

My niece has chosen a unicorn. My nephew has chosen a ghost. I'll admit I'm more excited about the unicorn. But, as one of my first endeavours into costume making, I'm going to keep things simple. One main concern is fit. Kids grow rapidly, and what fun are costumes that are too small, or only last a year... So I'm going to try account for that.

My inspo pictures, approved by the subjects:

For the unicorn, I'm going to focus on those arm and leg warmers. Maybe turn the arm warmers into a fluffy jacket. I'll make it elastic so I can stretch to fit if necessary.

For the ghost... well it's mostly about finding the right material. I might come up with some extra embellishments.

17 Sep

Made the ghost costume yesterday. Was pretty simple. I cut out a large piece of fabric, about double the height of the child. Then cut out a head hole in the middle, the same circumference as a head. Then I cut out a smaller square, the same width as half of the head hold circumference and sewed that onto one half of the head hole. This is to make the hood. I sewed together the top of the hood square to finish that off. Then double folded over the edge of the entire head hole to make a neat edge.

That's about it! I left the bottom edges raw as part of the look. I also added some horizontal darts near the shoulder to lift up the neckline a bit, it looked too big otherwise. This way it sits better on the neck and shoulders.

I'm thinking of painting a ghost mask on the back maybe, on the back of the hood so it looks like a face from the back. Just two black eyes and an open mouth. But I might wait until he's tried it on and seen it first.

I also started on the unicorn, I've been mulling over the technique for so long, should I elastic it, velcro it, tie it? I want it to be a bit flexible as the child grows so it doesn't just fit for one season. In the end though, I went with elastic, it\s the easiest on and off for a kid. I lost my measurement I made of her arms and legs so I'm still guessing the width, which is the most stressful thing about it. But I'm going with a guess, and if the elastic is too tight or loose I can change it. As long as the fabric is wide enough to accomodate, which I think it is.

I'm having to hand sew on the fur, which is taking some time. Otherwise going really well. I think I'll just make the legs first, then see that they fit. If too small I'll redirect them as arms, then will make the legs even bigger. Otherwise will just make a smaller set of arms. 

Currently, I just have legs and arms planned, but would be nice to add a tail? Although with too many moving parts the costume becomes complicated to store.

23 Sep

I got the ghost costume tested yesterday and it was a bit too big; it was trailing on the floor and the head hole was much too wide. I've taken it home again to fix it up a bit. It wasn't so well received by the client! I think he didn't like the hood. I'll do my best to make it fit better, but there is probably only so much I can do to jazz up a ghost outfit. I wasn't able to test the unicorn on the 2.5 year old, but the 4 year old subbed in. I think it's going to fit fine. I'm going to now create the horn and the tail as well to complete the outfit. I am hopeful this one will turn out a success.

4 Oct

It's been a while since an update, but I'm closing out this project today. I made the ghost costume a better fit. I realised I should have made a full circle cut at the bottom instead of a rectangle, then it flows much better. I also added some ghost faces on the chest and back of the head. Overall simple project, good turn out.

I made a unicorn horn out of paper mache and threaded it through an elasticated casing to make a headband out of it. It turned out quite well; it may be a little heavy to balance on your head but I think its a good option.

I then pivoted to try making another unicorn horn with ears. This was going to be a whole hat or mask to fit around your head, again with paper mache. It was a bit experimental, I had to create the 3D head form first with some cereal box card, getting a rough shape. Then I stripped paper mache over it. In the end, it turned out ok, but the shaping is still a bit rough, but it's an interesting proof of concept. I think it would be better if I used a pre-made paper template to fold into a nicely shaped 3D model, so it would look a bit neater. The second option i to use paper clay instead of paper strips for the mache, so I can better control the final shaping.

I probably won't be using the mask, but its a good concept for next time.

(Coming soon - picture of the horn on a headband)

I will get some better pictures of the costumes on the kids at some point... Coming soon.

Method

Ghost

- Cut 150cm diameter circle of mulsin fabric. Use width available.

- Cut out 56cm diameter circle in the middle of fabric.

- Measure half circumference of cut circle (x). Cut out square of length x for the hood.

- Sew on one length of square onto back half of circle hole.

- Sew the top side of the square hood together to close up the hood.

- Fold over the entire neck line twice and sew for a clean edge.

Unicorn

Leg warmers Measurements

- Elastic = 17cm

- Fabric square 35cm wide x 30cm long

- Fur 28.3cm long

Arm warmers Measurements

- Elastic = 11cm

- Fabric square 30cm wide x 25cm long

- Fur 25cm wide

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